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The Story Behind Gruyère Cheese

Growing up in a hotel atmosphere had its pluses and minuses. On the plus side I got to meet some of the craziest people working in the hospitality industry (believe me, you have to be some sort of a nut to work in a seasonal hotel as both work and play are just as intense). One summer we had twin brothers from Switzerland, both equally whacky and incredibly forgetful. My uncle aptly named them the Gruyère brothers, because, as he saw it, they were full of holes!

I was six or seven at the times and didn’t really understand why my uncle had chosen a new name for them. He took me aside and proceeded to give me a lesson on cheese making, namely the fabled Gruyère cheese, and of course, explained in great details the provenance of the famous holes.

Gruyère is named after the Swiss valley from which it originates in the canton of Fribourg (the pic above is of Swiss cows grazing nicely. Only grass or hay is allowed as feed, no silage). It is made from cow’s milk fed on the edge of the Vaudois uplands and end up in enormous wheels that are aged between three and six months. Apparently this cheese has been made in the region from the time of the Celts, and was known to the Romans.

Fine Gruyère is typically aged for 10 to 12 months. Because Swiss cheeses use a bacterium (Propionibacter shermani) and when warmed, bubbles of carbon dioxide form inside the cheese, roughly the size of peas. These bubbles then become the distinctive holes (or eyes as they prefer to call them) as it matures. An interesting aside, cheese makers can control the size of the holes by changing the acidity, temperature, and curing time of the mixture. This cheese is the norm for the equally famous Swiss fondue, though you can also use Vacherin or Emmental, both from the same region.